Recs.
Updated
This is a beautifully designed and extremely powerful electric board made for riding in the city.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Very impressive performace, suitable for pros
Being so powerful, this board will most likely appeal to experienced riders. It has a max range that's nearly three times more than what you'd get from the vast majority of boards out there. It's also faster, with a 26 MPH top speed, slightly beating the quickest competitors (such as Inboard M1 with 24 MPH top speed).
Pro Great stability at higher speeds
While the flex of a board like the Boosted can be great, It is not the best at speeds such as 42km/h, the GT's top speed with 97mm wheels. It can also be seen as a con for some people who just want to ride a board at decent speeds. Mainly the rigidity helps when going fast, as there will be less wobble or flex, which can easily throw the rider off their board, something no one wants at high speeds.
Pro One of the highest-performing boards available
With a top speed of 26 mph and a 15- 31-mile range, this board is among the most powerful on the market. It can handle steep hills (up to a 25 percent grade) with ease.
Pro Solidly built
A 40" long board created out of custom molded carbon fiber and kevlar. This makes for a light but very strong deck that doesn't snap or break easily. Fastened underneath the deck is the battery, which has its own custom casing that doesn't add too much thickness to the board, though it does add considerable weight (as all batteries do). The casing allows the rider to feel confident that water and debris won't affect the battery.
Overall, a well thought out design with craftsmanship to match, that exudes toughness and reliability in its construction.
Pro Huge selection of spare parts
Conversion kits, wheels, bearings, belts, chargers, hubcaps, inter tubes, battery casing, all parts for trucks (including bushings), are all parts you can order from their site, covering just about everything other than the motor itself. This is great for anyone who may lose or break any part of the board, as the spare parts are available and easily ordered.
Pro Easily maintained
Evolve offers a multitude of videos on how to change out parts on their boards, providing an easy way to learn how to properly maintain it. Coupled with the fact that plenty of spare parts are sold, it should be easy enough for any rider to obtain needed parts and fix their own boards when parts wear out.
Pro Good warranty
The warranty lasts for six months from the time of purchase. While not the longest warranty, there have been very few complaints about the company not fulfilling their responsibilities. The warranty is listed on their site as covering "all defects in material and workmanship" for that six-month period.
Cons
Con It's expensive
The price of this board is very expensive. $2K for a skateboard for most people is just not worth the money. There are good options available for much less.
Con Not waterproof
Water can get into the top deck of the board through the grip tape and damage the electronics.
Con The small motor pulley may wear out prematurely with aggresive riding, which requires you to replace the whole motor
You are obligated to get a whole new motor when your $3 gear wears out. Expect it to wear out quickly if you ride aggressively.
Con May be too rigid for some riders
For long-boarders who prefer a flexible board, the rigidity of the Evolve Carbon can be an issue. A flexible board offers a smoother ride at slow speeds, but the stiffer board offers more stability riding at higher speeds and carving around sharp turns.
Con GT remotes can control more than one board at a time
Some remotes may be tuned to the same frequency, allowing two or more boards to be controlled by one remote. While this will not happen to every board, the potential is there if many boards are around.
Con Resistance while not powered
For those that would like to push kick there will be a slight resistance to moving the board due to the belt drive train. This is something to consider for those that wish to use the board non-powered a lot. This is an inherent problem with all belt drive systems.
Con Optional all terrain wheels are unbalance and wobble at high speed
The all-terrain wheels are heavier on the nozzle size and unbalanced when spinning at high speeds, thus they can feel unstable. Luckily there is an easy fix of using car tire weights to balance the wheels.
Con May be unsafe on wet surfaces
This board goes pretty fast at 31 miles an hour, if you hydroplane or slip on a wet surface, there is a good chance you can get hurt falling off the board at that speed. This is why the manufacturer recommends not riding the board when it is wet outside.
Con No swappable batteries
There is no way to swap out the battery pack on this board. This means that there is no way to extend ones ride with a hot swappable extra battery pack. This also means the board will need to be sent in for service when the original batteries in the board will no longer hold a charge, as there are no replacement batteries sold to the consumer.
Con App feels like an afterthought
The companion app available (for iOS and Android) seems to be more an afterthought, as it does not really connect to the board in any functional way. It does not receive data from the board and it does not allow for changing of settings or upgrading of firmware. Mainly it is an app meant for tracking your usage, such a distances gone or areas ridden (which is recorded through GPS on ones phone, which isn’t always super accurate on speeds and mileage).
There has also been a lot of reports of the Android app crashing constantly, so for Android users, better apps are out there for tracking of the users rides.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con One of the heavier boards on the market
Relative to other boards the Carbon GT Street is quite heavy, coming in at 17 lbs and over 20 lbs with all terrain wheels.
Con Cheap electronics used causes endless expensive problems and are unsafe
Case Assessment and Response Unit
Office of Fair Trading
GPO Box 3111
BRISBANE, QLD, 4001
Re: Consumer complaint against Evolve Skateboards
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to lodge a complaint against electric-skateboard manufacturer Evolve Skateboards based at Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast. I have had the worst consumer experience I could have ever imagined possible with Evolve Skateboards, and the matter remains unresolved.
I purchased Evolve’s latest model carbon-fibre electric-skateboard back in early June 2016 at a cost of $2,159. For that price, I never expected the nightmare that followed. There was a six-week waiting period for delivery at the time as these were Evolve’s latest and greatest design of electric-skateboard, and therefore I didn’t receive the board until the last week of July.
It was only a little over a month at the end of August, I was making the first complaint of electrical issues to Evolve, raising some serious safety concerns. The board would either turn off unexpectedly mid-ride, resulting in the board having no brakes to slow-down or stop; or switch to its slowest speed without warning leaving you with less power than expected upon going to cross an intersection leaving you vulnerable to collisions.
To solve the issue, on the 5th September Evolve sent me a replacement “motor-controller” which is the main processing circuit-board between the battery, hand-remote and the power to the motors. This did appear to resolve the issues for a short while, but it wasn’t before long I was experiencing the same issues. In fact, I was making my second complaint to Evolve by mid-January. I was starting to feel frustrated with the board by this time as it was proving itself to be more trouble than it was worth.
Evolve requested I send the board to them as this was the second instance of electrical issues; so I did (at my cost). The motor-controller was then replaced for the second time. I didn’t receive the board back until late February, as Evolve returned it to the address where I lived at the time I initially purchased the board, even though I had explicitly notified them of my new address to avoid such occurring. They were then asking me to pay for the additional return postage costs, even though it was their mistake.
Despite the frustrations with the postage, I was pleased upon receiving the board back as I was hopeful that after it had made the trip to Evolve, that it would be finally repaired and I could start enjoying the thing finally. Unfortunately, this was not the case and it was soon the same old story. The board seemingly had a will of its own; some days it would turn on; others it wouldn’t; or quite often it would wait until you were a few kilometres from home before it completely died; leaving you with no choice but to lug it back home.
I was seriously upset by this stage; the board was still not repaired and it was so unreliable I didn't even feel comfortable riding it further than 500m due to the fear of being stranded. I was tired with speaking to various people within Evolve about it, and wanted someone to take ownership of the problem and make this whole situation right for me. I knew the owner Jeff, was actively involved in the daily operations of the business, so I called and requested to speak to him, only to get the response; “Jeff doesn’t concern himself with customer complaints”. I raised my concern to the person I was speaking too, of the costs involved with continually shipping it interstate for repairs, only to get told that sending it back at my cost was their policy and the only way forward in getting the board repaired was to do just that.
So I did – again. Before I posted it back however, I took great time and effort in monitoring and documenting via video the problems I was experiencing. I was hoping this would assist Evolve as I understood the problems were intermittent; they were not always present making it not the easiest to diagnose.
The collated video, along with an email detailing the issues were sent to Evolve in Queensland, and so was the board a short time later. I specifically told Evolve that the 'symptoms' of malfunction often don't begin appearing after 5 to 15min of riding, and I requested they keep the board for however long it was needed for it to be repaired. Well it wasn’t more than a week later I received a notification the board was on its way back after having its motor-controller replaced (again). Although once again, Evolve had actually sent the board back to my old address in Sydney and I had to wait for it to be returned to Evolve and re-dispatched.
Before I had even physically received the board back, I expressed my concerns to Evolve at having heard that just the motor-controller had been replaced again. As this had been done 3 times now and the problems had just kept arising after a short while. I expressed my concern that it may be a battery or motor irregularity causing the motor-controller to malfunction, hence it needing to be replaced continually.
After pulling it out of the box upon receiving it back, I only got roughly 500 meters down the road before the board started turning itself off again mid-ride. I turned it on again only to get another 10 meters and it was off again. Well I was furious – absolutely livid. I was ready to throw the stupid thing off the rail bridge I was on I was so angry. How could it possibly be returned in this state? Do they really now expect me to ship it straight back to them at my cost? I was even more pissed-off when Evolve told me that they hadn’t bothered viewing the videos I made for them to assist diagnosing, as the file was “too large” (2gb) for them to download.
I knew too well by this time what needed to happen. The issues were well documented to have commenced a little over a month after I first received the board and Evolve had since attempted to repair it on 3 occasions without success. The board had failed to meet any basic and reasonable expectations in quality, reliability, safety and value. It's for these reasons I have never questioned whether I would be eligible for a refund if I deemed it necessary.
Before any demand was made however, the slim possibility had to be ruled out that it wasn't the hand-remote causing any of the issues. Each time the board had been returned to Evolve, they must have had to use their own hand-controller, as the one that came with the board had stayed with me. To prove it was indeed the board that had the malfunction, I purchased from Evolve a brand new hand-remote at a cost of $120. Well after receiving the new hand-remote and experiencing exactly the same issues, it was confirmed that after 3 attempts, Evolve had indeed failed to repair the board to a usable, reliable state, and I simply needed to demand my money back.
I sent the board back with a demand letter requesting to be refunded for the initial cost of the board, and took the opportunity to express my dissatisfaction. I also explicitly told them not to send the board back to me.
The only emails I received back thereafter, were emails that were attempting to suggest the board had been ill-treated in someway. For instance, I had replaced the brand new belts I had recently paid extra for with worn ones before returning, which they were ever so quick to criticise. That there was dust or dirt they thought had got in somewhere that shouldn't. The thing that infuriated me the most however, is their claim the boards carbon-fibre deck itself has been damaged at the rear somehow and it needs replacing at a cost of $550! I was given notice of this in an email several weeks after it had been in their possession and after several emails that made no mention of it; which makes me think if there is such damage, it's of their doing. I can swear on my own life there was no such damage when the board left my end last and I refuse to accept any different. Weirdly enough though, it didn't stop Evolve trying to return the board to me. Yes that's correct; after explicitly instructing them not to send it back; and demanding to be compensated; and after their email saying the carbon-fibre board had itself been damaged and needs replacing; they attempt to send it back! They sent me an email stating that some electrical component had been replaced again and further testing had been done (someone riding my apparently broken board around) with no further reports of any issues. Well I'm sure I can be understood for not being so gracious. I refused to sign the postal consignment and I assume the board has now been returned to Evolve.
It's evident Evolve are deliberately trying any tactic to weasel their way out of compensating me by trying to pin whatever issues the board has on me, framing it in a way that I had somehow misused the board in some way. This is complete nonsense. Submitted with this complaint is the collated email correspondence between myself and Evolve from the first instance of malfunction to the present. This clearly documents this being an ongoing saga of electrical issues from little more than a month after I first received the board. The electrical issues being experienced rendered the board unsafe, unreliable and generally unusable as an electric-skateboard is inherently useless without working electrics. It's astonishing to learn that after the woeful experience I have had with Evolve and their product; after 3 failed attempts to fix the issues; Evolve somehow think they are not responsible or obliged to give my money back. I never imagined I would experience the misery I have had from a product that was intended to be fun and cost over 2 thousand dollars. I experienced nothing but continual electrical issues that made the board unreliable, unsafe and generally unusable from almost the time I first received the board.
I believe I have a strong case and wish to take it as far as it needs to go to receive a refund for the initial cost of the board. I request the services of Consumer Affairs (CA) to assist in this process. I will attach the original invoice along with this letter. The 2GB of video showing the issues as they were experienced is also available upon request but is is too large to attach along with this letter.
I regrettably was unable to attend to this matter sooner due to a hectic end to the year myself, and therefore fully expect this won't be a matter that CA will assess until the new year. I would appreciate to hear back from someone around then. Please don't hesitate to contact me via the details provided if you may have any further questions that may assist in the matter.
Yours sincerely,
Pro Great battery life
The Evolves 42 volt battery is quite large and offers a good amount of power. Enough to get the board to a 31 mile max range and a top speed of 26mph+. This is the current top range (as of Nov. 2016) for electric skateboards, making the Evolve one of the leaders when considering battery life and power.
Con Weak motor mounts prone to breaking
Hanging off the back of the board the motor mounts are more inclined to breaking http://imgur.com/a/S3Gp0
Con Actual real life range much lower than advertised
Some people are getting 12/17 mile range in GT/Eco mode
this guy get 17 miles in eco mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Vh5GTgBnM&t=690s
Con Evolve deletes posts on their Facebook and blocks people that make disagreeing points
Con All terrain wheels are not balanced and wobble at high speed
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Con Weak motor mount design prone to breaking
Con Only available as a pre-order
This board can only be pre-ordered in the US, meaning it is not currently available.